National Psoriasis Foundation pays tribute to leaders in psoriasis research and patient care

The National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) honored Gerald Krueger, M.D., and Alan Menter, M.D., with a Lifetime Achievement tribute for their decades of service to people with psoriasis—the most common autoimmune disease in the country, affecting as many as 7.5 million Americans—and for their status as thought leaders in the fields of psoriasis research and patient care.

Dr. Krueger, a dermatology professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, is the chairman emeritus of the National Psoriasis Foundation Medical Board. Among his accomplishments, he has collaborated on numerous studies that have identified genes associated with psoriasis and has led clinical trials related to new treatments.

He is co-director of the Utah Psoriasis Initiative, a study that aims to create a registry of psoriasis patients to identify risk factors in psoriasis, as well as determine the prevalence of other medical conditions such as cancer and heart disease in people with psoriasis.

Dr. Menter, chair of the dermatology department at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, was co-author of the first gene discovery for psoriasis, and has been involved in extensive research on treatments.

In addition, Menter led the creation of the Psoriasis Foundation Tissue Bank—the predecessor to the National Psoriasis Victor Henschel BioBank—which was the first public source of genetic material for researchers studying psoriasis. He served as its clinical director for seven years until 2002.

Besides their work in research, Krueger and Menter have improved understanding of the seriousness of psoriasis and encouraged the next generation of dermatologists to study psoriatic disease.

"As mentors, each of these doctors has helped develop the careers of countless young clinician scientists who have gone on to have successful careers,” said Psoriasis Foundation president and CEO Randy Beranek. "The future of psoriasis care is much more promising due to the efforts of Drs. Krueger and Menter."

The NPF presented the awards at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting on Feb. 4 in New Orleans.